


If You Need Us

by Merfilly



Series: Walking along the Moebius [3]
Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Fae & Fairies, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-18
Updated: 2011-10-18
Packaged: 2017-10-24 17:46:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah tries to cope, while more questions crowd in around her, and others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You Need Us

Sarah finally shut the door to her own room at nearly three in the morning. She fell back against the door, her nerves shot, her patience worn, and her brain screaming at her that all of this was some cruel trick or trap that Jareth had designed for her. Twenty years ago, she had faced a king in his prime, at the heart of his realm, and won. Her mind, since then, had dismissed it all as childish fantasy, writing off so many things as dreams based on childhood toys and trinkets.

They'd all been in her room, all the props a child could want to build her own fantastic world of make-believe. It had been so easy to convince herself, all in the name of growing up, that she had imagined the whole cloth of that wild adventure. All the logic in that was coming unraveled now, but Sarah was left with a pressing question.

If it had happened, as it must have, because that boy was Jareth or she was a peacock without feathers, why had her toys mirrored the faerie realm she had fallen into?

`~`~`~`~`

The lands known as the Labyrinth slumbered unknowingly with her lord taken from them. The goblins chased one another, the Bog of Eternal Stench continued to smell bad, and Sir Didymus kept his vigilant watch with Ambrosius. Tiny fairies that bit were carefully eliminated from the outskirts of the lands, counted by their exterminator who did not wish to think on the quiet. If it was quiet, Hoggle had no need to be brave, which suited the cowardly dwarf to no end.

It wasn't his business if Jareth wasn't making mischief.

It wasn't anything to concern him at all, unless the foreign fae from beyond their lands found their way to the castle.

The dwarf sighed, setting his equipment down. Maybe it would be a good day to visit Ludo, just because.

With a heavy sigh, Hoggle set off on a safe path within the Labyrinth, avoiding the strangers trapped in the maze, to find the rock master.

`~`~`~`~`

It took three days for the boy to be bored with being in her apartment. She still had to work, and that meant leaving him there alone, but Sarah had supplied the kitchen with plenty of food, shown him the books. Apparently fae had an inborn ability to read languages, because neither her German nor her French storybooks evaded his curiosity.

That third evening, though, had the boy glaring at the door even before she opened it. Sarah stopped as she came in, struck by the sheer presence of energy in the apartment. "What's got your hair knotted?"

The boy reached up, stroking at his hair, vain about it. "It's not knotted," he said sulkily. "However, I am bored beyond your capacity for imagination."

"I wouldn't be so quick to consider my capacity that limited," Sarah said dryly. "I'm not working tomorrow, so why don't we go out and see the city then?"

"That might be suitable." He let up on his glare, and the energy eased off her nerves.

Sarah wondered just exactly what she was supposed to do with him if he could still pull his power to him in such a formless fashion, but not direct it. This getting by day to day was not exactly a safe idea for either of them. Then there were the questions around his very presence.

Why was he a boy? Why could he not say or even think his name? Why was he here in her life, so long after she had defeated him at his own game?

Sarah needed answers, before either boredom or temper helped him break through to his power for causing chaos and wreaking havoc in the mortal realm.

Once, long ago, a friend had promised he would be there if she needed him. Though Sarah had turned her own back, by growing up, maybe he would still come.


End file.
